Procrastinating, Kingdom Saving, and all other forms of Geekdom

Tag Archives: Stephen White

It is the 14th book in his Alan Gregory series. Don’t worry. You don’t need to read any of the others to get into this book. While Alan Gregory is in the book, he’s not the main character. Therefore, his backstory isn’t really that important to the story (I’m not sure why it’s included in the series, but, hey, I’m just a reader).

This is from the author’s website:

What if you could choose when to die?
But once you decide, you can’t change your mind. Ever. No matter what.
We’ve all been there. A loved one or a dear friend becomes desperately ill, or is tragically injured. Maybe an automobile accident, maybe a stroke. Someone – maybe even you – says, “If that ever happens to me, I wish someone would just . . . kill me.”
So . . . what if you had a chance to decide, in advance, what level of impairment you were willing to suffer before someone did just that – kill you? And what if you went ahead and hired someone to carry out your instructions? And what if . . .
Well, welcome to Kill Me.
Meet the Death Angels.
It’s Alan Gregory’s most tantalizing, most provocative, and most controversial case ever. A charming, vivacious man flies into Boulder, walks into Alan’s office, and slowly begins to reveal the mess he’s in.
The Death Angels are coming. Watch your back.

Let me start off by saying that this is a very good book. It made me want to not put it down. The writing was superb. The characters were engaging. I did, however, have a couple of issues with it.

If you don’t want to know details of the book, stop reading now.

The first thing that bothers me is that, throughout the entire book, you never learn the main character’s name. It is never mentioned. When his family is talked about, only their first name is mentioned, never their last name. Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal, but it was still slightly irritating to me.

The second thing that bothered me was about his son. Somewhere between a quarter of the way and half way through the book you learn that he had a child that he never knew about. One day, a 14 year old boy shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his son. Because the boy looks somewhat like him, the man just took him at his word. No mention of a DNA test at all.

While it is never actually said, it is insinuated that the man is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billionaire. I don’t know about the rest of you, but if I was worth that much money, I don’t care how much the kid looked like me, the first thing I’d be doing is getting a DNA test. Someone would need to be calling Maury.

Also, the son lived with his mother in Cincinnati. The rich guy lived in Denver. Somehow, the boy got from Ohio to Colorado all by himself. I find it hard to believe that a kid could make it all that distance by himself.

Then, after the boy shows up, the boy’s mother (who the rich man hadn’t talked to since their one-night stand all of those years ago) calls and says, “Hey, he might be on his way to see you.”

WTF???

He has made a billion dollars since the last time they talked. I’m pretty sure he has a new phone number by now. I’m also pretty sure he can hire guys who can hide his number that are better than the guys she can hire to find out what his number is.

The boy’s mother also told him details of the night he was conceived. That’s another ‘WTF’ moment. Who the hell tells their child that kind of crap? If she wanted to tell him that she met his dad at a frat party, I’d have no problem with that. She, however, told him that he was conceived while she got nailed on top of a washing machine at a frat party. If I heard that, I’d be scarred for life…

That’s the end of my little rant. Overall, those aren’t very big things, and they didn’t take away from the story. I still think it is a very good book. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes great fiction.